DDB’s Liz Richards & Nick Dellabarca of DDB, with FCB’s Mitch Wiffin & Qassem Naim, are renewing their passports in anticipation of their trip to Cannes having taken out the Film & Media categories at Val Morgan’s Young Lions competition.
Both teams – DDB in Film and FCB in Media – are now off to the Cannes Festival of Creativity to represent New Zealand at the Young Lions global competition.
As the official representative for the Cannes Lions, Val Morgan NZ announced the winners of their National Young Lions competition in the Film and Media categories at an awards show last week.
CatWalk walks the talk
This year CatWalk, the charity for research to find a cure for spinal cord injury, shared their vision with more than 70 teams across the two categories. Open to agency folk under 30, it was the biggest turnout for the competition since established and the judges said the quality of work produced was some of the best they have seen.
“We congratulate all of the teams who competed,” said CatWalk general manager Meg Speirs. “We were thrilled to share our goals at CatWalk with the brightest young minds in the advertising industry focusing on our objectives.
“Turning these ideas into campaigns is a really exciting next step for us.”
Val Morgan sales director Suzie Lamborn said: “This is a fantastic competition which works to support a charity and promote creativity and strategy within the advertising industry.
“A big round of congratulations and thanks to all the teams who competed, as well as the winning teams. We are excited about the next round of the competition in Cannes.”
Positive, hopeful
Judge Emily Beautrais said: “The standout thing for me was that the winning pieces focused on the positive. Many charities leverage people’s sympathy, but CatWalk’s key purpose is a positive, hopeful one.
“So in this case it made sense to make that hope the centre of the work, which will help it stand out from appeals for other causes. Overall I think the quality of entries was outstanding. “There were so many beautifully crafted pieces, and more importantly, some brilliant and simple ideas.
“Every one of these young teams can be proud of what they achieved in 48 hours.”
“We congratulate all of the teams who competed,” said CatWalk general manager Meg Speirs. “We were thrilled to share our goals at CatWalk with the brightest young minds in the advertising industry focusing on our objectives.”
Show-offs?
DDB ECD Shane Bradnick said: “This isn’t the first win for Nick and Liz – these show-offs won a trip to SXSW last year as part of another competition and Nick won a trip to Cannes a few years ago through the Val Morgan Young Lions competition.
“I’m super proud of our guys, they’re both brilliant and deserving winners and prove DDB is fostering the next crop of creative talent.”
Judge Nicky Greville, commenting on the winning media entry Battlepack, said: “Simplicity is harder than you think to achieve and these guys nailed a simple, strong and innovative narrative throughout their presentation.
“A brave and differentiated strategy based on a pragmatic understanding of the audience. The appeal of this idea was that it showcased that they were not only thinking of a way to continuously drive donations, but they were thinking globally for massive scale.
“A genuinely innovative media idea that uniquely made donation an easy, positive experience while dramatising the charity’s mission.”
FCB Media managing director Rufus Chuter said: “Everyone at FCB’s stoked for Mitch and Q. They’re super-smart, talented media thinkers that epitomise our values of restlessness and doing different.
The judges
Suzie Lamborn extends her acknowledgement to the competition judges: “So much time, energy and support was provided by our incredible jury line up,” she said.
The Media jury was Becs Bradley (former strategy director OMD), Nicky Greville (general manager Y&R Media), Rufus Chuter (managing director FCB Media), David McCallen (head of strategy OMD).
The Film jury was Nat Knight (senior writer FCB), Emily Beautrais (CD at Clemenger BBDO/Touchcast), Simon Vicars (Colenso BBDO) and Brett Colliver (DDB).
Since 1992 the Young Lions has been offered by the Cannes festival organisers with more than 12,000 competing around the world this year to win this prize. Last year involved 75 countries with over 1100 young lions attending the festival.
The Cannes Lions runs Saturday 17 June to Saturday 24 June in Cannes (www.canneslions.com).
About Val Morgan
Val Morgan Cinema Network is Australia and New Zealand’s leading national supplier of screen advertising. Our network of over 2000 cinema screens covers metro, regional and country areas and provides advertisers access to a sought after audience in a high impact environment, proven to deliver six times the engagement of television. Val Morgan’s coverage includes all cinemas – Hoyts, Event, Village, Birch Carroll & Coyle, Wallis, Reading, Australian Multiplex, Sky City, Regent and the majority of independent cinemas.
Val Morgan also operates VMO (Val Morgan Outdoor) a network of over 4000 digital out of home screens across Australia and New Zealand. Val Morgan is part of the Hoyts Group (a Wanda Group company).
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